Congress and President Obama have reauthorized the federal extensions of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits for two months. The stop-gap measure takes UI claimants through the holidays and into the New Year with no interruptions of extended benefits.

This latest federal legislation does not include any additional weeks of benefits, it simply extends the filing deadlines for starting any new tier of the four tiers of federal extension benefits available. It also extends the filing and payment dates for those who are currently collecting benefits on the separate extension known as the FED-ED here in California. The maximum total weeks of benefits claimants may qualify for remains up to 99 weeks. Without this latest legislation, maximum unemployment benefits would have returned to 26 weeks of regular state UI benefits, which is the maximum without extensions.

Here are the details on the current status of the unemployment extension benefits program.

Current UI Extended Benefit Duration & Claim Deadlines

Here is a breakdown of the filing deadlines for federal extension benefits:

* As long as California continues to meet the unemployment rate threshold, it is anticipated that California will continue to be able to file FED-ED extensions through effective date March 4, 2012.

Customers Who Have Run Out of Maximum Benefits

The maximum total of unemployment benefits remains up to 99 weeks of benefits. As of January 30, 2012, there have been more than 613,000 unemployed workers in California who have run out of all available benefits, up to the 99 week maximum.

January 31, 2012, http://edd.ca.gov